marriage initiative has passed. so i know there were four states that were looking at same-sex marriage. >> ifill: it should be said that the same-sex marriage initiative has not passed before. it has consistently come back on ballots and consistently failed. jeff flake defeated rich carmona the former surgeon general latino who had moved back to arizona and turned into a vigorous challenge. >> as mark said, a fiscal hawk, libertarian small government. for people who want to say that they want to fight the fiscal cliff, they can point to at least one race. >> i have a soft spot for jeff flake ever since he was rumored to run against john mccain before john mccain last senate race eight years ago. he said he got a poll back and decided not to run against john mccain because john mccain

would have kickd pie fanny. instead of doing fanny. instead of the usual, i enjoy my housework, and i want to spend more time with my family. he said, no he'sin he's going tt me. >> he's a sunny, uplifting presence, a warm personality. >> and john mccain and john kyle, both got together and made an ad on his behalf and endorsed him for that seat. there was a lot of unanimity, at least among republicans. >> a state for 100 years, and it's had 10 united states senators. that's all. when they elect somebody to the senate, they keep them. >> woodruff: and it's also-- the democrats keep saying if the democracy of the state keeps changing they're going to have a hope. it's not close. we don't think. >> carmona. >> carmona gave it a good run. >> and there was charge of his former colleague, the woman who-- >> ifill: his boss.

>> his boss, that's right. >> woodruff: i want to come back to this gay marriage question and maybe bring in richard-- >> ifill: before you do that, i just want to remind our viewers we are actually waiting to hear from the president in chicago and he's at mccormack place. we're expecting him at some point to come out and accept his victory tonight, and to hear from governor romney and hear what we expect will be and what the crowd looks like is expecting a concession speech. i'm sorry, judy, back to you. >> woodruff: no, that's fine. we can stay on the pictures. i think people may be more interested in looking at the pictures than me talking. yeah, there's chicago. we may alternate back and forth as we wait to find out what's going on, and when if the president is going to speak, when and if governor romney is going to have something to say. again on the same-sex marriage, you were all making the point it has not passed anywhere before. it's been defeated. richard norton smith, i mean, the united states has come a very long way, hasn't it othis

issue? >> you know, it has. it's only been what, a little more than a decade since the state of vermont during howard dean's governorship embraced the concept, then radical-- certainly politically risky-- of civicivilians. it's a social movement that that has accelerated at a pace few would have predicted in the late 90s. it's fascinating to speculate as to the future. it's one of the issues, arguably, that the republican party and elements of the party will have to deal with if they are serious about regaining majority status. >> woodruff: reminding us of the controversy that ensued after the president came out, after the vice president came out and really put him in a position where he either had to declare himself in favor-- because before that, he had

said, "well, i really don't-- i'm not there yet. i'm not there yet" on the question-- >> ifill: evolving. >> woodruff: i'm evolving. but then after vice president joe biden said that he was absolutely in favor of gay marriage, the president a few days later came out and said he, too. >> he did him a favor. >> the fact is, the president paid no political price, and, indeed, on the contrary, may very well have been materially aided by his position. >> ifill: michael, i'm curious, is there any-- how much change happens by who we elect as our leaders and how much of it happens through these ballot initiatives, through these referenda, where the voice of the people actually speaks directly to changing laws and changing minds. >> it's its interaction of both of those things with voters. 1978 it was proposition 13 in california, which had to do with

reducing state services, and an effort to reduce the size of government, and reduce taxes. that was two years before ronald reagan won the presidency. in a way it forshadowed that. but the most interesting thing about leadership is leadership can't come from the top. it has to be in response to people at the grass roots, and it's this interchange between the two that's so fascinating and works in the american system when it's working at its best. >> woodruff: we're seeing mark shield showing me there's a report in maryland, where they're still counting the votes, but it looks as if the gay marriage initiative there i? >> 51.5% for with 84% of the vote in. >> woodruff: we can also report-- and i'm reading this from the associated press wires, that even though-- well, whatever happens with paul ryan-- and it does appear he was not successful in his bid to become vice president-- he has been apparently re-elected as a congressman from the state of

wisconsin. that's something you can do. you can run both for one of the highest offices in the land-- >> lloyd benson was the last person to do that. >> joe lieberman did that. >> woodruff: you're right. >> he did it two years later. >> ifill: he was able to run for both things at the same time. let's go back-- i'm taken by the contrast between what we're seeing in chicago and what we're seeing in boston tonight. obviously, in chicago, they are waiting with great anticipation to see the president. and in boston, there is also anticipation but it's more like resigned anticipation. people who thought they were coming to a party instead are kind of watching a durnlg on-- durge. >> look at the demographic ps of these two crowds. that's all you need to know. >> ifill: that's a good point, david. when you look at the obama crowd, it's incredibly diverse, very young, obviously, in a better mood. ( laughter ). but the difference between that and what we're seeing in boston is pretty striking. >> you know, the country is

changing. i mean, the gay marriage thing is part of the change, but the demographicez of the country are changing. the thing that's more confusing is the economics are changing and in much more complicated ways. that we're not seeing it's working class people, the people who are unemployed aren't in either crowds. they can't afford to be in those crowds. that's complicated. but the demographics and attitudes towards gay marriage and other social issues, the country is evolving and this result is just a reflection of that. >> ifill: how divided can we afford to be, though, mark, where we see the demographic divide, we see the political divide, we see the point of view divide between the people who would vote for one candidate and one who would vote for another. does that body well? >> the cultural and moral divisions are more difficult than the economic divisions. i believe in the $10 an hour minimum wage and david says,

"no, it should be $7. of." we can negotiate that. but if i believe abortion is the creation of the devil and evil and it has to be abolished, there is no compromise-- >> i would saylet economic vooshz become cultural wars. >> woodruff: what about the tea party, mark? >> historically you can do that with economic issues a lot more than you can with cultural, whether it's abolition, whether it's women's rights or whatever. those have been more difficult issues to resolve. legislatively and through the traditional political process of compromise-- >> woodruff: haven't we reached the point where some of the economic issues are becoming-- i don't want to use the word "religious--" but they've become so fervent in their belief about taxes, not raising taxes, people asked and required to sign a pledge, and they're required nothe to allow the debt to go any higher.

i mean, those are economic issues. >> at the risk of incurring the wrath of listeners and viewers, i would say there have been certain elements of the christian church in this country that have endorsed untrammelled free enterprise as part of the gospel, and i think it's become-- they've become uncritical supporters -- >> the reality-- the choice-- how much was government going to take as a share of g.d.p.? with president obama it will probably be 23%, and with romney it would have been about 20. it's not a huge ideological difference. when you hear the two parties talk about each other, democrats say the republicans want to take us back to the 1890s, and the republicans say the democrats want to take to us socialist europe and they have a tendency to exaggerate. >> ifill: i wonder if i can test one theor westuart rothenberg over there. i am sow curious how two years

after the 2010 wage, we have been able to gauge the degree to which the tea party is still robust, and the candidates who had the tea party mantle were able to succeed or not succeed tonight? >> certainly, richard mourdhad the tea party mantle and he didn't win. i think there is the tea party that represents the invisible american, over-taxed american. certainly in the presidential race we don't see indications of that, that it's a dominant message nationalally. the election two years ago was an easy opportunity for voters who were dissatisfied with the direction of the country to send a message to the president. this time it's more complicated. they can vote for house candidates and have a separate vote in the presidential race. and not only that, two years ago it was just a referendum on the

president. and now, democrats made it into a choice election between mitt romney and barack obama. so two years ago, and this election are lifetimes away, gwen. >> woodruff: and, stu, it's also who turns out to vote because you've got a much larger universe of voters who turn out in a presidential election year than you had in 2010, when it was the congressional seats that were up. >> exactly. a great point, judy. elections are about who votes. not who is legally entitled to vote. and two years ago, the white percentage of the electorate was much higher. the older-- the younger percentage of the electorate was much lower. older voters were more important. absolutely. it was a much more republican electorate. again, two years changes everything. and, you know, we want to draw these big conclusions out of an election, but you have to remember, two years from now we

will have another midterm election. >> brown: if you think about four years ago, there was no tea party. two years later, that's what we're hearing about. here we are two years later. and the question that i think we're all sort of groping at here is how much does it-- is it a national movement or how much was it limited? >> don't forget how much of this is determined by republican primaries. and this actually goes to the size of the electorate. in a lot of cases, richard mourdocks victory could be looking at as they have this internal party struggle-- ted cuz was elected tonight and will be coming to the senate. that could push the entire direction of the republican party in a different way, and that's what the tea party is looking at. they say the they're still aliv. they're sending out messages of that tonight. >> brown: social media? >> regular meade what, saying

we're still alive and well. >> woodruff: to overlay what you all have been talking about, the a.p. is reminding us that the democrats now will maintain their majority in the senate, and i'm just-- you know, we're talking about truly divided government. the republicans maintain a significant, apparently, significant majority in the house, democrats holding on to their majority in the senate. and we believe, if these projections hold up, and we expect they will, we don't know of a reason yet why they are not, although we have not had a concession yet from governor romney. if the president's re-elected, we have divided government again. >> brown: stu, that's where you sort of started the evening. >> yeah, i talked about that earlier, and that's certainly a significant problem, and the the question is then the lessons that house republicans draw out of this election. it's okay-- you know, it's okay to have partisanship. the problem is when each side doesn't want to compromise.

it's fine to have people with strong views, differences of opinion, whether it's on tax policy or spending or the size of government, but when they regard compromise as caving in on principle, then it's a big problem. >> ifill: you know, i'd like to ask christina a little bit about that. christina you're our expert on keeping track of social media and that's where a lot of our divisions play out. that's where a lot of our fights and "you're evil and you're evil "play out. have you noticed that tonight on election night. >> you have seen a lot of that on election night, people sending "i told you so" tweets. and looking at the scenes of the party. the democrats are celebrating but they want to needle the republicans because they have had an ugly, contentious fight. as to what stu said, if you talk about policy, think about what the president said in the "des moines register" interview,

talking aboutmenting to see immigration reform done. he's now just won a second term. democrats are going to have a little bit stronger numbers-- maybe the same numbers in the senate-- and the house hasn't changed all that much. maybe this is something they can come together on if they can't agree on fisk sal issues. >> brown: i do think it's interesting, gwen, and christina, with all the attention we've given to social media this cycle and we were sitting here-- christine and i were here on debate night and everybody was looking at twitter as it was happening. but on election night we weren't-- >> facts and figures. >> brown: i saw you looking a little bit, but for the most part, we're looking at numbers, old fashioned, counting the votes and talking about thiks in old fashioned way, except as you pointed out, the president, the first thing we heard from him was a tweet >> he sent an e-mail out to a mailing list. that was the first thing we saw, right as they called it, he sent this note out to his e-mail list

sphwhren i think it's fair to say we're in exactly the wrong side of what people are talking about, people on social media are hopefully wawping us you, and have their phones and watching margaret warner in boston right now at the romney headquarters, the increasingly quiet romney headquarters. what's going on there, marg represent. >> woodruff: and she's outside again. >> warner: gwen, it was right after you spun off to declare iowa, when suddenly fox declared ohio for president obama, and the room just went totally silent. i mean, it was-- it was really quite astonishing. and fairly quickly, there were some risers on the side, that started to empty out of people-- people just started to leave. now, they did bring in a whole new crowd, and i can tell that you we're told governor romney is now in the building. and they-- that the hall is packed. but you know, you could overhear people both on the phone and people i talked to, one member of the national finance

committee bwhat went wrong. and one of them said, "you know, the democrats just turned out more." surprisingly, the democrats really turned out, and ours didn't turn out enough." then i talked to a 79-year-old woman who is actually related to someone in the campaign, but she said, "you know, i think his message to women was--" it was hard for her to spit it out. she said, "i think it was hard for young women to accept." i didn't see a lot of anger but of course acute disappointment. >> woodruff: margaret were you able to talk to very many people there? i don't know how much access you have. and i see, unfortunately, you are back outside in the cold again. we're sorry about that sphwhrarg yes, i am back outside-- thank you. one reason i took a while is i wanted to be sure to catch people as they walked out. yes, i did get a chance. i asked one man who was laeg with his wife and his child. "are you leaving? isn't governor romney coming to

speak." and he said, "i'm tired. my kids are tired." i mean, all of these people, as i think you said earlier, you know, they put their life into this, at least for a year or two. and, you know, it's just hard emotionally. and we do have to remember these are human beings. we had one woman, jennifer nasur, head of the massachusetts republican party until december, who we would have had on if we hadn't been kicked back outside, but, you know, she, too, just felt that the-- you know, the demographics of the vote and the size of the turnout didn't pan out to fit the model they had which was older and whiter and all of that, all the things you have been talking about all night. >> woodruff: margaret, do you get any sense from them of what they'd like to hear from governor romney tonight? >> warner: you know, i didn't ask that question. i don't know. >> woodruff: it's okay.

jiewf done such great reporting. it's fine. it's one of those things that crossed my mind. >> warner: yes. well, they were playing a lot of-- i think they did this at the obama headquarters, too-- some of the campaign videos, and fairly-- with moving music and sentimental, kind of emotional films, and people looked very moved by this. so i imagine-- one man today some-- how did he put it-- "i just don't think-- people don't know the true mitt romney, and everything he's done in the community." this is a man from westboro, massachusetts, a very republican community between boston and worcester. and he said, "you know, he has an incredibly big heart. he's sending people to college," but he said, "i think he was just too rigid to let people know about the real mitt romney." >> ifill: margaret, thank you so much. and thank you for talking to all

those folks. i know it's tough sometimes for people to talk to reporters when they're not a particularly good mood on a night like tonight. and we're still waiting, of course, to hear from mitt romney and presumably he is somewhere in the building, and we're hoping to hear from him at some point tonight. >> warner: he is in the building and it's momentarily-- we heard from the security people and the people who were brought in. i said, "why did they tell you to come in?" and they said, "oh, he's going to speak." i don't know how soon it is but he's coming soon. >> ifill: thank you for all your hard work tonight, margaret. >> warner: thank you, gwen ncht it looks like people are not still leaving. by my watch, it's been just about an hour, maybe a little longer, since the networks and associated press called ohio and then the election for-- >> ifill: raises a question, what's take so long? >> woodruff: yeah, you want ton what's going on. and we have since learned that

other states, in addition to ohio, have now been given to the president, so that the president has over 270 frng he doesn't win ohio. so, you know, we're thinking about is there a phone call taking place, or phone calls? >> ifill: i don't know. >> woodruff: i don't know. >> ifill: i would like to ask richard a question about this whole dance we're going through now, the art of losing and winning and how that plays out and when it plays out well and when it doesn't. what do you think about that? >> oh, yeah-- people reveal themselves, obviously, in these moments of intense emotion. a moment that in some cases they may have direct their whole lives toward. there have been extraordinarily graceful moments in defeat. you think of adlai stevenson quoting lincoln in springfield in 1952 after losing to dwight

eisenhower. there have been graceless moments. some in our audience remember richard nixon's famous post-california gubernatorial-- "you won't have nixon to kick around anymore." >> ifill: i read about it in the history books. >> you can argue nixon had the last laugh-- or at least the intermediate laugh. but, you know, i remember-- a personal story. i wasn't involved in the campaign then, but i've been involved with senator dole over the years. and in 1996, he really was not in doubt about the likely outcome of the election. and a very, i must say, eloquent concession speech had been prepared for him, which he took with him to the ballroom and basically tore up and just spoke from the heart. and in the end, that's probably the only way for gon respond to something like this.

>> ifill: david what, do you think about that, this whole idea of the art of winning and losing and how it's best handled? >> i'd go with the eloquent speech. i thought john mccain had a beautiful speech. i think senator dole had a great speech. for both of them it confirmed their world views. they both had sort of tragic sensibilities. but i thought-- i think most people handle it well. and you have to remember no one ever gets over this. this is a-- an incredibly painful thing to go through. >> it is. it's the first line of their obituary. i mean, the first line of the obituary has been written. "the defeated presidential nominee in--" fill in the blank. adlai stevenson said i'm reminded of the words of a fellow townsmen of ourselves, abraham lincoln who upon losing an election said i feel not unlike the little boy who stubs

his toe to dark-- to old to cry and it hurts too much to laugh. i saw my mother cry for the first time when he said that. >> ifill: what about the art of winning? >> you know what, gwen, sometimes people concede so well, the people in the audience say, gee, if he had been half that good during the campaign, he'd be giving a victory speech." remember al gore's concession speech. you know in 2000. i think millions of people never thought of al gore quite the same after seeing that. >> woodruff: he did have some time to prepare that. >> he did. >> woodruff: it took some time but it was ever bit as painful for him as it is for any of these men, women, who throw themselves into this and find out it's not turning out as they want it. >> ifill: what about winning? there's a graceful and graceless way to win as well, especially when you're being reelect rather than elected on a wave of

history? it's a different kind of challenge. >> yeah, this is going to be a tougher speech to give for president obama. the first speech was a natural continuation of the campaign-- the speech that was part of the caucus process in iowa so many months before. there will be harder. because it has been left unlifting-- 90% the ads were negative ads. he has to say where are we headed? it has to be uplift and it will be nice to hear. >> woodruff: how much does he need to reach out not just to mitt romney, personally-- >> the other side. we're all americans. it's got to return to not a red state, blue state. it's not a republican debt or democratic debt. it's an american debt and something we have to resolve together and it's an american problem that every one of us has to bring his best ability and

hers as well with all these new women senators. >> 18 i just read. >> 18 women senators. >> woodruff: richard and michael, i think you're there with us. this picks up on gwen's question a minute ago about magnanimous winners for the presidency. >> well, think of-- kind of ironic in terms of how it turned out, but one of the great victory speeches was richard nixon's in 1968. remember, he talked about the signs he'd seen along the way. and one of them in desler, ohio, was from a young lady, and she had a sign and it said, "bring us together." and richard nixon said, that would be the overriding goal of his presidency." little did he know that he would bring us together to august 19, '74. >> can i come in for a second? >> woodruff: please do. >> as man nan musas he was in '68 he was the opposite of

magnanimous in 1972. nixon had won just about the greatest presidential landslide in history in 1972 over george mcgovern. and he was debating with his aides-- should i say something nice about mcgovern? and he finally said no, i think he once compared me to hitler. so the speech was ungracious. there was no need for him to be that way. and in a way it sort of foreshadowed the way he pehaifd in the ensuing years. >> nixon's first action-- >> fired the staff. >> was to demand the resignations of the entire administration. >> and then went up to camp david for at least a month and sort of shut himself away. >> woodruff: it is a time when we think about all of these things, and i guess those folks waving those little flags at mccormack place and the folks

in boston who aren't weaving flags must be thinking about this in their own way right now. >> ifill: i think it's a good idea to remind ourselves viewer who are hanging in with us that we are waiting on the candidates, the president-elect, barack obama, and on his challenger, mitt romney. mitt romney has not come out and consteed to the president even though we have been told he's on the premises and we're waiting any time for his speech and presumably the president is waiting on his speech as well. even the people dancing at mccormack place look a little less excited. >> it's a workout. >> woodruff: as david said he hadn't been shown a concession speech or maybe one hadn't been written. maybe they're writing one now? >> ifill: still, it's been a long time since the race was called and we're beginning to wonder. >> woodruff: we are beginning.

and gwen and i are able to see the wires and various other news organizations and so far there's no hint-- >> ifill: most tellingly, not from the white house press pool glel glood we can ask our it colleague christina bellantoni, who checks numerous media. christine, are you checking your media? >> we have heard the vice president is making phone calls to the democratic candidates who look like they're winning. he made calls to tammy balded win in wisconsin, the congresswoman there potentially winning senate race there. he also called bob kerry who lost the race in nebraska. joe donnelly who won the race in indiana. bill nelson, one of the first senators we called who hadn't won reelection in florida. bob case nepennsylvania. by the way, it's important to point out when vice president

biden voted today he was actually asked we the pool reporters traveling with him, "is this your last time you'll be on the ballot?" and he grind and said, "i don't think so." >> ifill: how old will he be four years from now? where is mark. >> it's obviously very early to talk about anything beyond this but you will start to hear people talking about anything beyond 2012, and particularly with the president winning a second term. what does it mean for cabinet changes. what does secretary of defense hillary clinton do, does she look at future bid? there are lots of things we can begin talking about. >> woodruff: and we look at the divided government, and the idea the president for the great, whatever victory he apparently is pulling off tonight, he's going to face a congress that is every bit as divide as it was-- i'm trying to figure out where to look. >> we have some data on this from exit polls. the nation is fairly divided.

you have the opinion of barack obama is doing all right and his favorability ratings-- 53% said they feel like he's doing a good job, and 46% said they don't. a lot of other indicationy we have seen, you have people fairly split on the health care education, fairly split on the handling of the economy. this is still a twieded electorate, and the house and senate split between republicans and democrats as well gloin there was one other exit poll i wanted to show here. it's something we talked about over the last few months, when people made up their mind, especially around that first debate.

brown: that voice just appears out of nowhere with numbers. ( laughter ). >> what's really interesting about this, it gets to the question of momentum. you heard a lot if the republicans about this, feel like governor romney had momentum coming out of that first debate, where he, obviously, performed burden of proof the president and carrying that on and he had these giant crowds and this last-minute push. the president's team kept saying we have the early vote locked in. we have the "get out the vote "effort and the statewide organizations that they spent so much money on early in the process-- >> i'm actually in the david brooks camp on this. i'm skeptical that even 20% of the electorate waited that late it decide. people like to say, "oh, i waited late in the psyche toll decide "but the partisan juices were there early. this is a self-report on when you decided. i'm always suspicious on

self-reporting. >> brown: i want to go back to the numbers guru, mark shields. he's the one who kept telling us. -- >> ifill: we have two calls, the new mexico senate race, the democrat has won, martin heinrich has defeated heather wilson for that seat. and the associate press is calling tammy baldwin as the winner of the senate in wisconsin. >> woodruff: that's a piece of history. >> and heidi highcamp, the democrat in north dakota, the state that had byron dorgan and kent conrad forever forever, in a deep red state, was leading last time i checked. it's remarkable. >> ifill: the gender caution displood there were 17 going

into the election. and there were some organizations who follow the women elected officials who were say it could get up to above 20. i haven't seen aically claigz yet. >> ifill: can i also say as we wait to hear-- that's heidi heitkamb, we're waiting to hear from the president and waiting to hear from mitt romney there's an electric detail reported from fox news. apparently part of the delay may be that karl rove on the air is saying he believes ohio is far from settled, and even fox news' call was premature. if that's being taken to heart somewhere deep inside the bowels of the romney headquarters-- >> woodruff: but we also said once colorado and nevada was called, there was no other route for governor romney-- displen our map still takes us where it

takes us. >> the last count in virginia, president obama is ahead by 60,000 votes. the associated sprs reporting that lead. it's beyond an inside straight if virginia goes. >> woodruff: this is with 97% of the precincts reporting-- >> 51,000. >> woodruff: you're right, mark. mark, do the math. >> 51,000 vote lead for barack obama with 97% in. >> woodruff: gwen was looking at that same quote from karl rove questioning whether the call from ohio was premature and you could say that could be a reason for hesitating. >> ifill: at this point we're speculating. it's been an hour since the race was called. >> these people, it's not their first campaign.

they've lost before and-- >> i think it's the candidate. i really do. >> i agree. >> i think it's the candidate who doesn't want to-- >> woodruff: you mean governor romney. >> who doesn't want to concede. do you think-- >> that's what he's going to say. >> woodruff: do you think they're waiting for more-- they must be waiting for more results to come in, possibly? >> i guess but i-- >> it's pretty-- it's not-- >> this isn't a powerpoint presentation. i mean, this is a concession speech. this is how he's going to be remembered. you heard richard on adlai stevenson. bob dole rose to the occasion and john mccain. >> woodruff: michael beschloss. >> the karl rove comment gwen was talking about if i could put it in a little context. go back to the evening of the election in 2000. remember when the state of florida had been called early in the evening for the networks by al dpoar, the next thing you saw

was karl rove, who was at that point governor bush's strategist saying we don't accept these results. we think the returns are wrong, premature. haven't got the numbers from the panhandle. that's how it all began. he did exactly the same thing on election night 2004 at about the same time about some of the early states. so this is something think he's so accustomed doing he probably advised governor romney to wait. >> woodruff: he's not part of the romney organization. >> no but the line has been described in some cases as rather narrow. >> woodruff: it's crossrods and crossroads gps, which are suppose to be separate. >> this has been a very good night for pollsters. i think if you look at the average of all the polls, not only the presidential, which i

know will end up close, but senate races. i can think of very few races where the polls-- >> woodruff: i can quote cbs. this is a tweet from cbs reporter norah o'donnell quoting her colleague jan crawford greened berg as-- crawford, who has been covering the romney campaign. she's reporting that a senior romney adviser says that romney is not ready to concede and the associated press, i'm told, has just called virginia for president obama. 4r that's one more state in the count >> can the president go first, judy. >> are they waiting for dick morris to call it? >> he's got a big crowd there. does he just go down and say-- >> ifill: i imagine that's the conversation that's happening right now but none of us has a clue about what that conversation is. i do want to turn the corner. let's assume for a moment what

we know holds and what we know is pretty overwhelming, especially with the call of virginia. what does the president do, first. he said immigration is at the top of his list. david, take the fiscal cliff and set it aside and think big picture. what does the president do in the second term? >> let's start with staff. tim geithner is leaving so what kind of treasury secretary do you pick? do you pick somebody like erskin bolls who will send a signal and make liberals unhappy. jack lu, a chief of staff, more of a staffer, put him in that job, go left, or pick mark warner. the staffing signals begin to be very important how you look at the second term. secretary of state, do you give that to john kerry? so those are the sort of things. then i think he's got to think about inequality. it's an issue that did not come up. it should be in the wheelhouse

of the democratic party. he should be putting together a comprehensive program to deal with inequality and family breakdown. >> ifill: you think he has more latitude to do that now than he did in his first term? >> i do think he does. and i think that would be bipartisan in some areas. >> woodruff: ray suarez is back with us in chicago. ray, what are you learning? what do you know? >> suarez: well, actually, the campaign people have pretty much disappeared. there were surrogates milling through the crowd, and talking to reporters around around the time the president was projected by all the news services as the winner of today's election. and then, everybody kind of went to ground. the crowd has been waiting pretty patiently. there hasn't been any news-- not good news, not bad news. and they're waiting for president obama. every now and then something will be flashed on a screen, a referendum result, a senate

campaign, another state being projected for the president. and as with now, they're seeing virginia being projected for obama, and a big cheer is going up. but for most of the last hour, it's just been ear-splitting oldies, a very quiet crowd, and not much to do or not much to talk about. for a time, the crowd was paying such attention to what was going up on the monitors that's even when a line would be posted, "obama expected to address chicago crowd," everybody would cheer and then nothing would happen. so right now, we're in a weird state of limbo. every now and then there's a big pan of the headquarters in boston, with no one on the stage, and nothing happening there. and then nothing happens here. so for the last hour, pretty much status quo. >> woodruff: ray, where is the president right now?

>> suarez: he's said to be in the building. we've been warned not to try to leave this room, that it is momentarily gog lock-down. so we're expecting the president and his family are now here. they haddine dinner at their south side house and then probably went to the fairmont where a lot of people were gathering before coming together to the convention center here on chicago's lake front. the president is said to be in the building. we're told to stand still. and this crowd is standing stillo its own. >> woodruff: but no sense of any communication yet between the romney and the obama organizations? >> suarez: nothing that we've beenable to confirm here. like i said, a lot of the people who are in a position ton and were very much available earlier in the evening have gone to ground. it. >> ifill: this is a good chance to take a look at the update on the electorm college number as we've been watching

them unfold all night long. we now have the president at 302 electoral votes with 49,951,033 to mit mitt romney's 2003 electl votes. of course 270 electoral votes are needed to win. and the president hasec bested that according to these numbers and we're waiting for to hear what the candidates have to say. it seems like a big gap to close. >> woodruff: it seems like an 80,000 vote difference. >> yes, it is. thank you for checking, judy. >> ifill: we were asking. you're the numbers guy. going over 300 is impressive. george w. bush won the presidency twice, once at 271 and once at 286. this will be the second election in a row where barack obama has gone over 300 electoral vote. and, you know, those are impressive numbers.

they really are. >> woodruff: but these are-- not but, these are projections we have been making, based on incleat-- raw totals. we don't know the final, final raw totals. perhaps governor romney and the people around him are waiting-- >> ifill: except we are now hearing for the first time that we will hear from governor romney in about five minutes. the "new york times" is reporting that they have two sources saying that governor romney will concede tonight. so if there was a hesitation, it seems to be quickly going away. >> good. >> woodruff: it's about an hour and a half by my watch after ohio was called and the race was called for president. obama. >> ifill: we're also hearing a phone call has been made. >> good. >> ifill: cbs is reporting a concession phone call has been made from mitt romney to barack obama. hopefully soon we will hear speeches from both of the candidates. >> woodruff: we will wait five

minutes. it seems like an eternity. >> not with us around. >> anybody want to have a pool on five minutes? ( laughter ). >> ifill: i'm going to go back to michael and richard there, over there, because, michael and richard, you have so many thoughts in your head, this would be a good time to share them. >> one case of this, if you're looking at the proat colz of concession and declaring victory tgo back to the night of 1960, where 3:00 in the morning east coast time, richard nixon was in los angeles. kennedy had won enough electoral votes so one more sight of a number would have given him the election. it was almost clear he was going to be president-elect. that state had not yet come. richard nixon in order to dispec objections that he was a poorp loser went down to meet the people wait, for his victory speech, but went down and said if this trend continues senator

kennedy become our next president. and david brinkley on nbc said, i don't know if that was a concession speech or not. >> that's right. one candidate rarmed-- he's going out the way he came in-- no class. >> judy, one of the cautionary notes-- it may be out of place at this moment-- >> ifill: nothing is out of place at this moment. ( laughter ). >> woodruff: gwen said that. i didn't say that. >> i take your point, gwen. in any event, history suggests this is a very vulnerable moment for a president re-elected. that the great dangers that presidents confront often come in moments of triumph when hubris steps in, and when people-- one thing we've learned. both parties in numerous election cycles there's a tend 18 to overinterpret one

mandate-- george wvment bush learned that when he died after the election. i'm not suggesting history will repeat itself. all i'm saying is, it is a moment to also take stock. it's a moment for humility. as well as celebration. >> woodruff: do we think there's a drgt president may do that-- we have been told governor romney will speak six and a half minutes from now. not that we're watching. >> s i think there are a

couple of things that will guard against some of the common flaws of second termed. he's a man of high integrity who has run a very clean administration. you can argue with this or that, behavior, and there have been signs of insularity and arrogance, but there have been no scandals. and the rate of scandals plaguing second terms is extremely high. i think he's less prone to that. second, he tend to be reasonably prudent especially in the realms of feern affairs. i don't think he's likely to do something rash, which is another common second term problem. i think some of the common second-term problems will probably not plague him. his problem will be getting anything done. we have had an election where we're mad at government and let's throw the bums back in. >> ifill: the word "mandate" seems to dog candidates. >> there is no mandate.

a mandate requires to you lay out these are the three things i'm going to do. i think it's necessary for the president to strike note of humility tonight, that, you know, this is a-- you know, not a personal victory. this is just an opportunity to work and to reach a sliewtion, and that-- and acknowledge and assert the legitimacy of the other side, those who are elected are elected by the same americans who elected barack obama. and i just think that's-- you know, i really think that's important. i don't think it's-- there are no policy initiatives or whatever. i just think you have to establish right now from this moment forward the framework of trying to establish trust and conscious. that's it. otherwise, there's never a

chance. >> woodruff: the only communication we've had from him so far, that tweet he said, "we're all in this together. that's how we campaigned. and that's how we'll go forward." i guess you can say in the less than 140 characters-- >> whenever he reaches for elegance, and you go back and read the inaugural address, that's the tone he reaches for. that is what he'd like to be. one of the smartest tweets i read this evening is, "this is not a moment. this is a coalition." which is to say four years ago was a moment. this is a coalition that supported him. >> ifill: michael beschloss? >> i agree exactly with what david has said. and there's another reason i think barack obama may escape the second term curse that's afflicted every president from roosevelt on. i think in the case particularly of f.d.r. and richard nixon

purpose there were things they wanted to do that were were so costly, i'll defer this to my second term and wait for a landed slide reelection and let it rip. that's when they got in trouble. many presidents might have said i'm not going to do something as unpopular as hiewk-- health choir, and he's done it. >> woodruff: i hate to sound like a broken record, and this is the scene in boston, i believe-- i don't see a romney sign-- yes, here we go, boston. but he still faces a divided congress and, frankly, 48 or 49% of the american people who think he didn't deserve reelection. >> and some exhaustion. it's a pretty small staff surrounding him. they've been extremely busy over

four years. they've run this hard-corp campaign, they're tired. so coming up with that agenda and thinking anew and what's crucial i think is bringing in fresh blood. >> ifill: we have enough time to go to jeff and listen to what we know about the house race. and we've heard of a couple of other same-sex marriage initiatives. >> brown: stu and christina can discuss this. >> just eye biewling and estimating where we are, it looks to me as though democrats will make gains in the house, 0 or 1 seat, and as many as eight or nine up to the upper end. if it's double digits i think they will be relieved. >> a couple things we're looking

at. one race i would highlight in particular, in iowa where you had congressman steve king, running against vilsack. that was a race with a national flare. with the president winning iowa enough of a margin to be called fairly early in the night, i thought that would bring her along with him and didn't. another thing i will be keeping an eye on is nancy pelosi's future? does she stay in the house. i'm sure she won reelection. she's easily re-electable. and maybe she decides to retire and not seek reelection. >> two very quick senate updates, in north dakota, upon heidi highed kamp is ahead and

that would be a terrific win if she could hold on. in nevada the president is up now by six points. that may be enough to drag the congresswoman. if they both hit for the democrats, wow. >> brown: i hear we're within a minute or so of governor romney. i'll throw it back to you, gwen and judy. >> woodruff: you hear hearing the number of women in the senate. let's go to the scene in boston as they wait for governor romney to come out. this crowd has been very patient. >> ifill: they have been waiting for some time to hear from their guy. they heard two hours ago it did not happen.

s. >> thank you so very much. thank you. thank you. thank you i have just called president obama to congratulate him on his victory. his supporters and his campaign also deserve congratulations. i wish all of them well. but particularly, the president, the first lady, and their daughters. this is a time of great challenges for america. and i pray that the president will be successful in guiding our nation.

i want to thank paul ryan for all that he has done for our campaign ( cheers and applause ) and for our country. besides my wife, anne, paul is the best choice i've ever made ( cheers and applause ) and i trust that his intellect and his hard work and his commitment to principle will continue to contribute to the good of our nation. i also want to thank anne, the love of my life ( cheers and applause ) she would have been a wonderful first lady ( cheers and applause ) she has been that and more to me and to our family and to the many people that she has touched with her compassion and her care. i thank my sons for their tireless work on behalf of the campaign and thank theirs wives and children for taking up the

slack as their husbands and dads have spent so many weeks away from home. ( applause ) i want to thank matt roads and the dedicated campaign team he led. ( applause ) they have made an extraordinary effort not just for me but also for the country that we love. and to you here tonight, and to the team across the country, the volunteers, the fund raisers, the donors, the surrogates-- i don't believe that there's ever been an effort in our party that can compare with what you have done over these past years. thank you so very much. ( applause ) thanks for all the hours of work for the calls, the speeches, and appearances, for the resources, and for the prayers. you gave deeply from yourselves and performed magnificently, and

you inspired us and you humbled us. you've been the very best we could have imagined. the nation as you know is at a critical point. at times like this we can't risk political bickering and posturing. our leaders have to reach across the aisle and we citizens have to rise to the occasions. we look to teachers and professors-- we count on you not just to teach but inspire our children for a passion of learning and discovery. we look to our pastorses and priests and rabbis and counselors of all kind to testify of the enduring principles upon which our society is built-- honesty, charity, integrity, and family. we look to our parents. in the final analysis everything depends on the success of our homes. we look to job creators of all kind. we're counting on you to invest, to hire, to step forward. and we look to democrats and republicans and government at all levels to put the people before the politics.

i believe in america. i believe in the people of america ( applause ) ( cheers ) and i ran for office because i'm concerned about america. this election is over. but our principles endure. i believe that the principles upon which this nation was founded are the only sure guide to a resurgent economy and to a new greatness. like so many of you, paul and i tavis: good evening. tavis: good evening.